Strategic methodological considerations in the data communications network environment are most commonly directed to improving an aspect of the network's efficiency. The aspect may be one of communications speed--to which substantial efforts are directed in the simulations of modified interconnection topologies, and likewise of modified routing protocols. Alternately, the aspect may be one of communications security--to which substantial efforts are directed to encryption, filtering out of potentially armful active executable program fragments (e.g. viruses), and restriction of access (e.g. contents accessible by authorized personnel only, or access restricted absolutely--such as pornography on the Internet).
It is intrinsic for a proper understanding of data communications to consider how the aforesaid aspects have developed in such diverse technologies as telephony, distributed databases, cable television, Internet, and the like. However, for the purposes of brevity, the materials to be cited as characterizing the prior art will be primarily restricted to those related to the Internet. Those knowledgeable in the various data communications technologies are well aware of the overwhelming theoretical similarities between these diverse technologies (so called). However, even for those knowledgeable in the theoretical similarities, seemingly diverse nomenclatures have become a practical burden with the spawning of numerous industry standards and off-the-shelf embodiments.
It should be recalled that data communications in the network environment is propagated using packets of "information", or some conceptual equivalent thereof. These packets undergo various transformations in the course of propagation, and also generally accumulate header information, which allows the packet's information to be reassembled (or reseparated) at the end of the propagation path. It is generally in the aggregation of a statistical profile of these headers that network communications engineers search for clues which suggest how an improved sub-optimizing of response time and other metrics may be achieved.
A general survey of relevant standards may be learned from www.cmpcmm.com/cc/standards.html while more specific standards relevant to the appreciation the limits of the relevant prior art may be learned from www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ios112 . . . /4cfrelay.html, from www.cern.ch/HSI/fcs/applic/rd11/Nov94/FCS note 1.html and from ftp.sunet.se/ftp/pub/Intemet-documents/rfc/rfc 1072.txt. In addition other relevant aspects of existing methods considered for use in this technological domain may be learned from www.vtt.fi/tte/staff/ojp/workflow.html, and from www.win.tue.nl/cs/pa/edis/sys/decision-wait/index.html.
It can be fairly stated that, with the major exception of security considerations, the motivation of data communications technology is principally directed to improving response time. However there are other relevant considerations in data communications technology, such as costs. Costs (in the present context) relate to amortization of equipment, maintenance of equipment, worker productivity, rate payment structures determining interconnection for the transfer of data communications, and the like.
Often, each of these costs is independently sub-optimized. Amortization and maintenance are considered as for any other equipment that becomes rapidly obsolescent. Productivity is thought to be a mix of security restrictions and the maximizing of response time. Rate payment structures are substantially directed to finding cheaper service providers or to using computational tricks (e.g. compression) in order to achieve higher utilization of the current service provider(s).
There are also relevant psychological factor involved when the one or more persons are parties to a data communications transaction. For example, most people become frustrated with slow response time (e.g. waiting for a dial tone, waiting for a database query response, etc.) while some people become almost addicted to fast response time (e.g. video-like arcade games).